12 weeks and counting

12 weeks and counting...

baby is the size of a lime.

cravings: sour candy, pickles, twang, green apples, oranges, orange juice.

weight gain: 3 lbs

morning sickness has mostly gone away. I only threw up maybe 3 times. I was mostly just nauseated and it wouldn't last all day.  Bryson was a lot worse.  I'm still extremely tired and have no energy.  I have trouble sleeping all through the night due to getting up numerous times to tee tee.  I have done this since a few days before I found out I was pregnant. I didn't do this with Bryson until about the 6-7th month. 

ok time for a COMPARISON

The first picture is from when I was 12 weeks with Bryson. I may have exaggerated by belly a little. Hey, I was excited and ready to show.  It's close enough though.

The next 3 are today at 12 weeks and 1 day.

I'm not too sure why my hair looks like it has a lot of red in it in these last pictures. I haven't colored my hair. Maybe just the lighting.

We still have a little while to find out if it'll be pink or blue.  Either way I'll be happy! Just praying for a very healthy and happy baby.  God will give us what He sees fit!!

I'll do another comparison in a few weeks. I think my next one is 16 weeks.

Comparison

A little comparison. On the left is a picture from 8 weeks pregnant with Bryson. On the right, 8 weeks with baby number 2.

I'll do another comparison next week at 12 weeks:)

A new surprise

Okay. So I know I haven't posted in a very long time.  I should really try to do a better job at my mommy blogging.  So a little update since I've last posted. I now have a very curious two year old little boy who is into ABSOLUTELY everything! He is such a super smart little man and I'm not just saying that because he's mine;).

And recently we announced our little surprise that our sweet Bryson is going to be a big brother! That's right! I am in the process of growing a new little miracle. July 18 can't get here fast enough but in another sense is so close and we have too much to do! Just like any pregnant mother we are of course dying to know if this little bean will be a miss or another mr! As much as I would love to have one of each I honestly don't know what to do with a girl. I can give expert advice all day long about Legos, air planes, choo choo trains, Lincoln logs, cars, and trucks, but when it comes to barbies and princesses I'm a little out of touch.  I even had a patient at work ask me where to find barbies other than Walmart. Having no clue I had to ask my mommy friend Lindsay where she gets rylee's.

Anyways, back to being completely anxious and excited to find out the gender of our baby I have passed the time with a few fun little test to try to take a guess.

At 10 weeks from my missed period I bought an intelligender test and took it the next morning. Here was my result:

One week later. At 10 weeks and 2 days according to the Ultrasound measurement I took another intelligender test.  This was my result then:

Hmm...so one boy result and one girl result. Well that test didn't convince me to lean toward one or the other so I decided to do the ring and string test.

According to the old wives tale if you tie a string around your wedding band and hold it above your belly and it spins in a circle, you're thought to be having a girl. If it sways back and forth it's a boy! Simple enough. Let's give it a try.

Well, it went in small circles. So another girl result.  Let's see what the Chinese gender chart says.

Another girl result. Not certain what the lunar age and all is but I promise I put the right dates in. Haha. This was from babycenter.com

So far these are all this test I have done. Of course it is all for fun and I will be perfectly happy with pink or blue. I just want a happy healthy baby!

Comment your opinion if you want. It'll be fun to see who guesses right! We'll know hopefully in February! 

Oh how we've grown...

I cannot believe it's already been 6 months (on march 9) since our precious little boy came into this world.  We have had our up and downs for sure but it has all been well worth it.  Not only has he drastically grown but we have also grown as people.  We have had to learn to be patient when things were hard.  We learned how to appreciate all the good and that the good ALWAYS outweighed the bad.  It has been an amazing journey so far and so rewarding to see him develop.  I can't wait to see what the next 6 months have in store.

Thanksgiving In January

I know it's been a awhile since i've last posted.  Working a full time job and being a wife and mommy tend to be time-consuming yet enjoyable duties. From waking up and not only getting myself ready for work i also have a whole new person to get ready for MiMi's house.  Hitting the snooze button until the thought finally comes into my head 'ok i can sleep until this certain time and still make it on time' and always still seem to be pushed and rushed for time.  I have been this way for as long as I can remember.  I guess it's a little quirk of mine.  Then it's off to take Bryson to Mimi's (unless its a day Levi is off) then to work.  Gym during my hour lunch.  Then going to pick Bryson up and go home.  From there we start play time, feedings, bath time, and finally bedtime.  Then mommy gets everything packed to start it all over again the next day.  It is such a busy job but worth every last bit of energy I have.

I dont know what is going on lately but I seem to be hearing a lot of bad news.  Not affecting me directly but just creating thoughts that leave my mind pondering. First the tornadoes that almost seem to have a mind of their own.  As if they were just picking and choosing what to destroy next.  Seeing videos of neighborhoods with houses completely demolished sitting right next door to a beautiful 3 story home without a scratch.  Also hearing about people's unexpected and unexplained losses.

After hearing about these things it really made me just pause for a minute and think.  I thought 'Lord I have been truly blessed.' Not luck, not coincidence, not happenstance, but purely blessed by the very hand of God.  He has allowed me to have so many things to be thankful for.  In my busy schedule, I rarely ever just stop to say 'thank you'. Catching myself in thoughts with a sense of entitlement.  Like I DESERVE this.  Or they owe me that.  Well recently I have slowly been humbled.  God doesn't "owe" me anything.  He's already done enough through Jesus.  Saving the most important thing that belonged to me.  My soul.  Sometimes in situations I would think, 'why me God?!' or 'What did I do to deserve this?!"

I recently read a very inspiring book.  Not written by a famous scholar, philosopher, or Doctor.  It was written by a preacher and his four year old son.  You may have heard of the book.  It is Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo.  I wanted to try out my kindle app on my new droid so i was anxious to download a book.  A woman I work with told me that she heard this book was great.  So I downloaded it and started reading that night.  Let me say, normally I start reading and if the first chapter does nothing for me my heavy, sleepy eyes take over and i read myself to sleep.  Not this night.  I began reading at about 9:30 pm and did not look at a clock until 1:00am and had to make myself stop then because I had to be at work at 9 that morning.  I was hooked.  I had about 1/4 of the book left before finishing and was able to finish within the next few days. It was the best book I have ever read.  This book was such an inspiration in my spiritual thinking.  It made me not just think of heaven as a place people who have accepted Jesus into their heart and live according to his word go, but an actual place.  A place that the book was able to let me "see" with my imagination.  It was beautiful.  If you havent read this I highly recommend it.

All of this made me think of how blessed I am to have such a wonderful, supporting husband.  A beautiful home for my family.  The most precious little boy anyone could ask for.  A job.  A vehicle.  Nice clothes.  All of the luxuries that we have.  These things that are so easily taken for granted.

Even though none of the bad news has affected me directly.  It did affect me indirectly.  It made me appreciate what I have and praise Him.  Knowing that I do not DESERVE anything I have.  I'm not worthy of anything (not even life) but God has blessed me by not just saving my life, but giving me things to make it worthwhile.  Things to love and nurture on this earth.  A son to raise so that he too will share His word.

I hate that bad things happen to such good people.  I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and everything works out for the greater good for those who believe in Him.  So all of you who are/have endured a lot of unexplained hurt or confusion, be thankful for the things you do have.  If you wonder why your time was so short with someone you love dearly.  Don't let yourself be caught up with what you'll never get to experience with them, but be thankful what you did get to experience with them.  Time is so short.  Don't take your breaths for granted.

Don't just praise him when things are going your way.  Praise him during the storms too.  Know that sometimes something better comes out of something bad.  And don't think that God isnt answering your prayers.  Sometimes the answer is just "no"

I Do to I Don't Anymore

I Do to I Don't Anymore

I just heard some news that another long term marriage has split and its triggered some pretty in depth thoughts in my head. What is going on out there?  I mean...these people were married for years and just suddenly gave up for whatever reason.  I will try to be considerate in the fact that not all marriages last.  I will start by some interesting statistics thanks to divorcerate2011.com


Divorce statistics in the United States






*Almost 49 percent of the marriages end up in divorces
*First marriages end up in divorces in an average duration of just less than 8 years
*60 percent of all divorces are related to individuals aged 25 to 39
*There were more than 21 million divorces in the year 2000. In the same year, 58 million couples were married and still lived separated
*The average male age for a second divorce was 40.4 years and the average female age was 37.3 years in 1990
*The divorce rate of first time marriages is almost 10 percent lesser than the divorce rate for second marriages
*Over a 40 year period, 67 percent of first marriages terminate in a divorce and 50 percent of these divorces take place within the first 7 years
*Every year more than 1 million children are affected by divorce


Divorce statistics regarding the risk of divorce






*In case of individuals who have attended college, the risk of divorce is less by 13 percent
*If a person has strong religious beliefs, the risk of divorce is 14 percent less
*When the parents are happily married, the risk of divorce of their children decreases by 14 percent
*Those who marry for the first time after they attain the age of 25, in their case the risk of divorce is less by 24 percent
*If the yearly income is more than 0.5 million USD, the risk of divorce decreases by 30 percent


Effects of divorce on children






*The possibility that teenage girls from single parent homes would give birth to an out-of-wedlock child or would drop out of high school is two times as compared to girls living with both parents
*The children who are brought up in single parent homes display a lesser possibility to marry and more possibility to divorce
*50 percent of the children in the country are a witness to the breakup of their parent’s marriage. *Almost half of these 50 percent are a witness to the second divorce of a parent
*From 1970 to 1996, the number of children residing with both parents plummeted from 85 to 68 percent


Now with that information let me remind some of you who may not know, I myself have been a victim of divorced parents.  Fortunately I was only 18 months old and too young to know any different.  I Had an amazing step-father who was involved from a very early age and treated me as his own.  I also had a father who was very involved with me and my growing up.  So I considered myself to be a very lucky girl.  Not only did I have one dad but I had two!  As a child there were several times I remember wondering what my life would have been like if my biological parents would have stayed married.


Anyways, my question is, why does the divorce rate continue to rise every year?  Have we forgotten the sacredness that surrounds the whole unity of marriage.  I understand that things happen that just sometimes can't be fixed, but are we giving up too quickly?  I feel like so many people go into a marriage with the thought, "well if it doesnt work we'll just get divorced".  Treating marriage like a JR High boyfriend/girlfriend relationship.  "We'll just break up when it gets hard"


I've noticed a lot of the parents of people my age are just suddenly getting a divorce which lead me to writing this.  After careful thought I began to try to put some sense into it all.  I just wonder why now?  After 28, 29, 30 or more years of marriage... what went wrong now after all of this time?  And then I considered maybe it was the impact of your children being grown and gone with a life of there own (I really wasn't intending on that to rhyme).  I just wonder if people lose their ability to find happiness solely  in each other and enjoy the company of just the two of you.  Life gets so busy with children.  It is a 24/7 job in itself.  Soon your priorities change to doing all you do in life to please your children.  And that is completely fine.  But I also believe that we are getting so caught up in other aspects of life (but who can blame us...we have to keep up right?) with work, children, housework, yard work, and of course your "me- time" all done in 24 hours with 8 hours of sleep.  Life sometimes gets ahead of itself and we forget to sit back and just push the pause button and enjoy what you saw in each other that very day you said "I Do"  You don't have to spend money and you dont have to spend hours.  A simple hug and kiss and "how was your day?" will go far.  Of course you still need to plan a date night if not once a week at least once a month... just to remind you of who you chose to share your life with that very special day.





*“Inside every child is an ‘emotional tank’ waiting to be filled with love. When a child really feels loved, he will develop normally, but when the love tank is empty, the child will misbehave. Much of the misbehavior of children is motivated by the cravings of an empty ‘love tank’.”


*When your spouse’s emotional love tank is full and he feels secure in your love, the whole world looks bright and your spouse will move out to reach his highest potential in life


*I explained that what makes one person feel loved emotionally is not always the thing that makes another person feel loved emotionally.


*It isn’t enough to just be in the same room with someone.  A key ingredient in giving your spouse quality time is giving them focused attention, especially in this era of many distractions


*Some husbands and wives think they are spending time together when, in reality, they are only living in close proximity

Anyways, I felt the need to share this tonight.  Hopefully it will remind us that marriage is a sacred unity between two people before God.  It shouldnt be taken lightly and vows shouldnt go erased.  A lot of people seem to forget the part that says "or worse, in sickness, or for poorer"  They just hear the " For better, and in health, and for richer"


Marriage takes work...just like anything else in life thats worth having.  Nothing in life comes easy and stays that way.  Love is a growing up and growing up means more responsibility.  It is such an amazing feeling...You spend your entire life searching for that person and preparing for that moment.  You take things to the next step and get married, then express your love through children.  Never, ever forget the beginning.  How you had butterflies in your stomach when you would get a call from them.  Or how you would try to hide your awkwardness during that very special first kiss.  Those are the moments to fall back on.  Always remind yourself when things get hard of what made you fall in love in the first place.  I have only been married for 1 1/2 years to the most amazing husband a girl could ask for.  We went into our engagement/marriage knowing that divorce wasnt an option.  We made a promise to each other that if things go rocky we would both do everything we could to fix it.  Counseling, therapy, whatever it took.  I know we have just started out but keeping the sanctity of marriage is the key.  Remembering that God created marriage.  As long as He's involved then there is ALWAYS a chance.


Matthew 19:4-6
Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

An Unnerving Beginning To An Incredible Journey

I'd like to start with letting readers know this is my first post...Well...this is actually my very first blog.  I will go ahead and tell you that I'm not focused on grammar or punctuation here because...well to put it simply it just takes too much time (which i don't have).

I'd like my first post to start with my amazing (and terrifying)  journey to motherhood.  Levi and I knew from the very day we said "I do" that we wanted to start a family right away.  We both loved children and to be able to have our own was something we just couldn't wait to do.  On January 14, 2011 (5 months after our wedding day)  We found out the most exciting news that we could ever know.  Now...like I said before...we had waited for this moment for 5 months.  Pregnancy test after pregnancy test would be trashed with a negative response for months in disappointment.  So when I read the word "pregnant" on the test you can imagine what I felt...actually...I felt disbelief, excitement, fear, and joy all bundled into one big ball that settled into my already uneasy stomach.  "Am I really ready to be a mommy?" I thought to myself as I sat there with my heart pounding.  Well ready or not we would have a baby in 9 months.  I called Levi in to the room to tell him the news.  I could see how proud he was to know he was going to be a "daddy" in just months from that moment.     Of course we cried...laughed...hugged...and asked the infamous question "well what do we do now?"  I call my very sweet friend/coworker Lindsay to get doctors names at St. Vincent's (because that's where babies come from of course) and I scheduled an appointment.  A few weeks later we saw our special little gift from God (No bigger than a pea) and heard the beautiful melody of a healthy heart beat.  It was that moment that I felt pure, never-ending love.  

Well...skipping ahead to the 9th month.  I had a very good pregnancy...aside from low iron I stayed very healthy and risk-free.  I worked through my entire pregnancy (to the very day I went into labor) I actually was one of those weird people who loved being pregnant...until about the 8th month...when the joy of carrying a life turned into carrying 27 extra pounds of weight around.  I became miserable.  I had awful swelling (no i didnt have toxemia) and being pregnant in mid to late summer was HOT.  I was ready for this baby to be in my arms instead of my belly.  I walked and stayed fairly active during it all.  I remember thinking "37 weeks is considered full-term...I could have him now and he would be okay"  So in a way I was hoping he would hurry and come to relieve some of my exhaustion. That day was like any other day.  I got up, got ready, grabbed breakfast, and ran out the door to go to work.  I worked until 5 and came home and just didn't feel good.  My stomach hurt and I was extremely tired.  I fell asleep on the couch and barely woke up to kiss Levi as he left for work (He was working nights)  I woke up at about 7:30 cramping.  Not bad but noticeable. I thought maybe it was just something I ate or the way he was laying or something.  I wrote it off.  Well it just never went away.  I went and took a warm bath and texted Levi to tell him.  He said "Jessica you might be in labor" and i said "noo its prob something else...I'll just ask at our Dr's appointment tomorrow  because I'd hate to be sent home"  Well...Levi ended up coming home at 11 (just in case)  After a fair night of sleep and a call to work saying i wouldnt be coming in that day...we loaded up the car with all of our luggage and drove to st vincent's in hopes we would not be coming home as a family of 2 but a family of 3.  I get to the doctor and he checks me.  I was at 3 centimeters!  I was sent down to labor and delivery to monitor my contractions to make sure my contractions were actually contractions.  They kept me over night to see how fast my body would progress itself without inducing because I was only 37 weeks and 6 days (yes he came early).   At 5 that next morning I was at 5 centimeters so they decided to induce.  I then got my epidural at 7 centimeters ...people ask why I waited so long...i was so afraid it would slow things and I wanted to be good and ready because I was more afraid of the epidural than labor itself.  Well the epidural was nothing.  After that...everything was numb from the waste down.  After 36 minutes of pushing...at 11:16 am on September 9, 2011.  Dr McKee handed me my very own baby boy (Bryson Maddox Blanchard) weighing in at 6lbs 8ounces and 20 inches long.  I had never felt so over-whelmed with so much love.  Tears of joy flooded down my cheeks as I counted fingers and toes to make sure everything was just perfect...and he was.  I had decided at the beginning of my pregnancy that I wanted to nurse (you'll ask why this is relevant but it is)  Our first nursing session went pretty well.  After that the family came in to meet our little man.  He was passed around from grandparent to grandparent with oos and ahhs circling the room.  He was sculpted so perfectly by the very hand of God.  Three hours after he was born.  The crowd died down and went home.  Lance (my wonderful father-in-law) stayed around just for a little extra Bryson love.  We were all starving so Levi and Lance went across the street to McDonald's to get a bite to eat while me and bryson had another nursing session.  This time it wasnt going quite so well...he seemed to have problems latching and would fuss.  The nurse came over to help and we both noticed his color just didnt seem right.  He started appearing blue around the mouth.  She grabbed him up and took him to his crib and put an oxygen mask on him and measured his O2 stats.  In that very moment I realized what the quote meant when saying "when you have children, you choose to let your heart walk outside of your body" At that very moment I felt my heart leave with him when she took him away from me.  Every second felt like an eternity.  I didnt know what to do.  I felt completely hopeless.  I called Levi and told him to get up there now.  Within minutes he was there.  By this time Bryson appeared to be breathing fine.  The Pediatrician came in and evaluated him and decided it would be best to monitor him closely in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit)  These words were the worst words I have ever heard in my entire life.  My heart sunk and every thought rushed through my head. "what's wrong with him?" "Why is this happening to my baby?" " I thought I did everything right."  I blamed myself.  He depended on me solely for 9 months to grow healthy and I failed him.  It had to be me. I did something wrong during pregnancy.  In all of that I felt like the greatest moment of my entire life had been robbed of me.  I had pictured going home in 2 days to a completely new life.  They asked if we wanted to walk down with him and I said yes.  They brought a wheel chair for me.  While entering the hall behind his crib all I could do was hide my face and the tears.  Everyone stared in sorrow for me but I was embarrassed because I completely let myself go.  I literally balled the whole way there and the whole way back. They wouldnt let us stay because they wanted to do some tests. They called about an hour later telling us he had another blue spell while lying there and the nurse had to actually startle him to get him breathing again.  So the tests began. First a spinal tap to check for meningitis.  Thankfully it was negative and from there stemmed ultrasounds, x-rays, blood work and of course IVs.  Everything coming back normal.  Finally an upper GI was done to check for acid reflux.  We had our answer.  It was such a relief to know that it was something that simple.  We were able to go home then (one week after birth).  The whole week seemed like a blur...from staying with my brother to be closer to Bryson.  To the early morning trips to the hospital just to sit and look at him lie there helplessly but knowing we were there every step of the way.  I don't think we slept that week.  Leaving the hospital was full of emotions in itself.  Glad that we finally got to go home but fearful because we didnt have the nurses to call when we had a question.  We made it home though and did our best to keep the nervousness hidden for each other.

Well, I wish I could say it was all uphill from there.  But it wasnt.  One week after being home from the hospital Bryson started projectile vomiting.  We had blankets all over the place to catch it even hours after he ate.  It was clear that it was very painful for him.  I couldnt understand why his food wasnt digesting.  The only way it left his stomach was coming back up.  I took him to the pediatrician's office 3 times that week and was told basically that he had reflux and sorry.  Well then his weight started dropping and it was taken a little more seriously.  We were then told he needed another ultrasound of his stomach and quick and the fastest way to get that done would be the Children's ER.  So we load up and go only to be sent home with the reason of he has reflux and the ER is really for emergencies only.  Well to me this was an emergency.  My child was clearly sick.  We told our pediatricians what happened and they got on the phone and explained the situation to the GI specialist at children's and they were gracious enough to squeeze us into there schedule for two days later. Now let me back up to say that I had two long distance cousins whose baby boys had a condition called Pyloric Stenosis.  This is a condition where the muscle that empties the contents of the stomach into the small intestines becomes over-worked and tightened to the point where the stomach couldnt empty.  So knowing this...I walked into the room and said I wanted an ultrasound of his stomach to check for Pyloric Stenosis and she could basically look at him and tell that it was very likely.  After 2 ultrasounds and a weight that was 2 ounces below his birth weight (he was 3 weeks old) we had our answer.  It was Pyloric Stenosis.  The only way to cure it is to do a minor surgery to cut that muscle so it would relax.  I was afraid but relieved to know that this would take care of the problem.  They had to put an IV in his head because he was severely dehydrated and his veins kept blowing out.  Well his surgery was the next day and took only about 30 minutes to do the entire procedure.  They went in through his belly button for minimal scarring. After an additional day in the hospital to make sure he was eating well we were discharged...this time for good.  We went home and he was finally happy.  We still had problems with his reflux but all in all he was a good baby.


I am happy to say that he is nearly 4 months old now and weighing about 14 pounds.  He is a happy, healthy little boy whose curiosity and growth develops more and more each day.  It is such an amazing feeling watching him grow and develop.  To distinguish what faces look like me (which are few) and which faces look like his daddy (spitting image).  Our Journey started out difficult.  With a brokenness I hope to never feel again.  If it werent for my faith and my husband I dont know what I would have done.  Although it was a difficult situation, one thing I was reminded of was not to just cry out to God when things go wrong, but also to cry out to God when things go right.  I felt horrible knowing it had been a little while since I had actually prayed and thanked God for everything going right in my life that when calling on Him for help I felt incredibly unworthy...Yet, knowing He was there and He heard my cries.  It just shows what an amazing God we have. He answered my prayers.

I know this was a long first blog but I had some catching up to do.  Hope you enjoyed our story.